IF TERRENCE Long had caught a catchable drive against the Yankees last season, it’s conceivable the A’s could have been World Champions.

After the A’s acquired Jermaine Dye last week, Long called it “the move that puts us over the top.”

He could be right. First, the A’s have to get there. The wild card is their only avenue and heading into the weekend, the A’s trailed two teams by five games in that race.

If the A’s get in, look out. They are better than they were a year ago.

Here’s why:

Johnny Damon gives the A’s the speed they lacked a year ago. After a horrendous start, he has improved steadily, as evidenced by his monthly batting averages (.211, .222, .255, .310).

Young lefty Mark Mulder is vastly improved. A year ago, he walked nearly as many batters as he struck out and allowed far more hits than innings pitched. This year, he’s striking out three hitters for every one he walks and he’s allowed less than a hit per inning.

Dye more than compensates for the loss of Matt Stairs and gives Jason Giambi the protection he lacked before the trade.

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When asked about being booed, Rey Ordonez said in a published report: “I don’t care. The fans don’t play baseball.”

Mel Rojas, wherever you are, come back to baseball, so the Mets can trade Rey Ordonez for you.

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Ken Griffey Jr. rejected the Mets once, but confidants say he won’t do so again. Griffey has a no-trade clause, but he’s so miserable in Cincinnati, especially with pal Pokey Reese being shopped, Griffey has whispered to friends he wouldn’t be shocked if he ends up wearing a Mets uniform.

The Dodgers and Mets view Reese as a potential solution to their shortstop problems.

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Did you catch the “trivia” question posed by a WFAN listener?

“Who bats after Todd Zeile?”

The answer: “The other team.”

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The nice thing about Bob Costas’ “Fair Ball,” now out in paperback, is that it manages to tackle one of the most boring topics in all of sports, labor, without inducing sleep.

The really nice thing about it: Costas donates all his proceeds to B.A.T. (Baseball Assistance Team), the organization that helps needy ex-ballplayers. The surest sign that Fair Ball is a fair look at labor came when both sides were upset with Costas over what he wrote.

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Bob Cerv, one of the Yankees’ big bats off the bench in 1961, roomed with Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle in a Queens apartment after being traded from the A’s in May of that season.

“A writer found out about it the next spring and pretty soon all the writers asked me why didn’t you tell me that last year,” Cerv said. “I said because nobody asked me.”

Cerv on *61: “My wife said I’m better looking than the actor who played me. I don’t know if she was trying to score points or what.”

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Sammy Sosa, once a wild swinger who was such an easy target for two-strike sliders in the dirt, has developed into the most consistent run producer in the game. Sosa has driven in at least 21 runs in each of the first four months of the season. He has far more RBIs than any other two Cubs combined.

Reader John Halka of East Brunswick nailed it when he wrote the passing of 500 Home Run Club member Eddie Mathews didn’t receive nearly enough press coverage.

Halka points out Mathews was the only player to hit as many as 370 home runs in his first 10 seasons. (Ralph Kiner hit 369 during a 10-year career). Mathews also hit 54 percent of his 512 homers on the road and had more homers at age 31 than either Willie Mays or Mantle, before being slowed by a shoulder injury.

Mathews, a fleet runner in his younger days, died last Feb. 18 in San Diego, and from a baseball history standpoint, he didn’t quite get the proper sendoff befitting an all-time great.